FAQs
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What do you actually do in these drawing/painting/art courses?
We start each time with a new playful adventure, trying out, exploring, exploring, playing.
It's not about right or wrong, good or bad. Nor is it about having to master a craft particularly well.
We skip the need to know a craft and go straight to the art!
With unconventional, simple suggestions, tasks and techniques, we go on a voyage of discovery on paper. It's simple and easy, following the laws of what has just come into being.
We find our way, our own individual way.
We use paper, lines, shapes, surfaces and colours to create something new and unprecedented. New things that want to show themselves behind the
"I should" and "I can't", in real, true, own expression.
We don't orient ourselves on the past, as it always was, but we look at what is now.
This is great fun and makes a lot of sense, which allows us to feel our life forces!
We tickle the muse and dive into the living essence of art itself!
How can I imagine this happening then?
Either in the café, in the studio or outdoors, you will receive all the necessary materials: pad, paper, pencils, erasers, paints and everything you need. Then you can start with the unusual painting experiments.
Do I need any previous knowledge or artistic talent?
Not on my part. Previous experience or an own style can even be a hindrance to go new, unusual, wonderful, new ways.
So: talent or previous experience, gladly, but not necessarily. The beginning seeker has at least as much fun as the professional.
The results all look so professional, I can never do that!
Want to bet?
I would like to be able to paint well and beautifully, what do you think of that?
I think that's great! In case you decide for yourself what is good and beautiful for you!
If you still have the opinion of art teachers, parents, partners, neighbours or society in your judgement system, I strongly advise you not to paint good and beautiful.
Then paint wild and dangerous instead!
I want to learn how to draw properly, perspective, human proportions and so on.
Am I in the right place then?
Yes, after the initial exercises there is the personal free space. There I can show you the laws and you can practise how to do it.
How is a weekly course and a weekend course structured?
We always start with an initial exercise that lasts 20-30 minutes. In this exercise I teach unusual approaches and new techniques to intentionally leave familiar paths.
After this exercise, you can work independently or deepen the initial exercise. In the beginning there are clear instructions, in the second, free part I give individual impulses. At the end, there is always a work show to appreciate all the works that have been created.
And in the weekend workshops we have more time for everything, we dedicate ourselves to the theme of the workshop and deepen its technique.
What techniques are tried out in the courses?
Almost all techniques of the visual arts. We usually combine techniques that we can use effectively. So we usually start with pencil or charcoal sketches. Sometimes wildly abstract, sometimes concrete, and then we add colour. Wax crayons, coloured pencils, watercolours.
Stencil technique creates clear forms, watercolour technique stays in the delicate fragrant, collage technique combines colour surfaces, frottage technique is dedicated to different structures. Sometimes, however, we stay in the black and white spectrum, practise hatching, learn tips and tricks to make objects look spatial or to draw in perspective. To describe just a small selection.
I have a few ideas about what I would like to do artistically, would there be space for that?
With pleasure! We can work out an individual way for you.
What do I personally gain from doing these crazy, nonsensical initial exercises?
I find these exercises incredibly valuable.
They take us out of everyday life directly into pleasure, help us to get "out of our heads", encourage us to take new unconventional, unknown paths, invite us to do everything differently for a change. In joy, in play, in loving interaction with ourselves.
Ultimately, I find it valuable for the artistic process to be kissed by the muse and not by the imagination and the mind.
To this end, I often provoke with confusion, new unfamiliar techniques, or time stress ("one more minute").
This helps to draw more originally, to paint more intuitively, to dare to be more original.
Where do you get these initial exercises from, can I look them up somewhere?
Usually I think of the approximate theme and technique before the lesson. But often I don't know myself what course the exercise will take during the lesson, the creative process happens while I'm leading the exercise. Then I often watch myself in amazement. And somehow the course always has to do with the people present.
I developed all the exercises myself, so unfortunately you can't read about them.
But I have started to write down the exercises or make videos. You can watch them on the website.
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Can you name a few "nonsensical" initial exercises?
For example, we draw with the left (undominant) hand, draw blind, trace letters of a manhole cover, paint folded, crumpled paper, combine techniques, e.g. wax and water colours, paint book pages and cut them out, stamp, draw the shoes of the woman sitting opposite in 10 seconds and trace the movement of the pigeon walking past.
Kannst Du ein paar "unsinnige" Anfangsübungen nennen?
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What should I bring with me? Do I need my own equipment?
You are very welcome to bring your own equipment, the things you like to paint/draw with. But basically I always bring everything for everyone.
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In which language do the courses and workshops take place?
My main course language is German. English I can translate spontaneously, so that every course can also take place in English translation. For most workshops, I am assisted by a translator, so the courses are usually held in German with Spanish translation.
This is indicated in the course description.
How much do the courses cost?
The regular, weekly courses cost 20 euros for 2 hours, residents and those living on the island get a 25% discount. Weekend courses, depending on duration, between 50 and 80 euros. There is also a 25% discount here.
For people who cannot afford the course fees, I am also happy to give a discount, or another solution can be found.
Where do the courses take place?
In Los Llanos, Puntagorda, Las Tricias, Tazacorte and Santa Cruz. If there are requests for other places, I am happy to start a new course as well.
How big are the groups?
Between 2 and 12 people
Since when have you been giving such courses?
Here on La Palma since October 2020. I had already offered art courses in Germany during my studies.
Do you have an artistic education, have you worked as an artist or art teacher?
I studied art therapy at an anthroposophical university for 4 years and graduated with a diploma. And I worked for many years as an art therapist in psychiatry, geriatrics, addiction, disability and with children.
I have been here on La Palma since 2020 and do art courses, yoga courses and exhibit my paintings. I also work occasionally as an art therapist, graphic designer and counsellor.
Are there any evaluation standards at all if it's not about good and beautiful, right or wrong?
Absolutely.
Evaluation rather not, but there are very objective descriptive criteria for looking at a work of art.
And there are laws that everyone can feel and check for themselves. For example, when contrasts create a clear expression, when something is harmonious, when colours or forms communicate with each other, when something touches me very much, when I like something extraordinarily, when I feel something essential that I can hardly express, etc.
Do we go into the regularities of the individual colours or the properties of point, line and surface?
Yes, but rather in passing. The focus is not on scientific research, but on the journey of discovery.
And the big question at the end:
Why are you doing all this?
That's a good question. There really is a mystery in it!
Well, I think what really excites me about my work is this mystery.
It is the movement we make as interested people during the work. An admission, an engagement with the colour, the form, with what is wanted, what seems random and what finally happens on the page, what is finally real.
It's such a semi-conscious thing. The head is often busy with judgements and evaluations, but what happens anyway is something bigger. "It" does on its own. One's own will, intention, control, can play a part in it and can also achieve some things. But what wants to emerge is bigger, more essential and is real!
In this stage of being creative, it happens: you feel that something new is happening, something that happens very easily and playfully, it happens all by itself. You are amazed, you feel invigorated and in most cases there is a sense of happiness and as if you have touched a piece of redemption.
And then, of course, the mind kicks in again.
Such unstable states massively endanger our need for security! And because the whole thing was semi-conscious, we also forget much of this space we have just experienced.
But nevertheless, the more we engage with art, the more we practise becoming more familiar and at home in this creative being. To become more courageous. And we succeed more and more often in going there more easily and playfully, in getting involved and dancing with uncertainty.
And to become a creator!
And the role I am allowed to play there, as a companion, guide, explorer of new territory, awakener, makes me deeply happy and makes this work deeply meaningful for me!
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